List of Irish short story writers
Encyclopedia
This is a list of short story Irish writers either born in Ireland
or holding Irish citizenship. Short story writers whose work is in Irish
are included.
A brief outline of the history of Irish fiction
is also available.
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
or holding Irish citizenship. Short story writers whose work is in Irish
Irish language
Irish , also known as Irish Gaelic, is a Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family, originating in Ireland and historically spoken by the Irish people. Irish is now spoken as a first language by a minority of Irish people, as well as being a second language of a larger proportion of...
are included.
A brief outline of the history of Irish fiction
Irish fiction
Although the epics of Celtic Ireland were written in prose and not verse, most people would probably consider that Irish fiction proper begins in the 18th century. However, there are aspects of Early Irish prose that appear to have had some influence on the Irish novel: the use of exaggeration for...
is also available.
A - D
- Samuel BeckettSamuel BeckettSamuel Barclay Beckett was an Irish avant-garde novelist, playwright, theatre director, and poet. He wrote both in English and French. His work offers a bleak, tragicomic outlook on human nature, often coupled with black comedy and gallows humour.Beckett is widely regarded as among the most...
(1906 - 1989) - Maeve BinchyMaeve BinchyMaeve Binchy is an Irish novelist, newspaper columnist and speaker. Educated at University College Dublin, she worked as a teacher then a journalist at The Irish Times and later became a writer of novels and short stories.Many of her novels are set in Ireland, dealing with the tensions between...
(born 1940) - Elizabeth BowenElizabeth BowenElizabeth Dorothea Cole Bowen, CBE was an Irish novelist and short story writer.-Life:Elizabeth Bowen was born on 7 June 1899 at 15 Herbert Place in Dublin, Ireland and was baptized in the nearby St Stephen's Church on Upper Mount Street...
(1899 - 1973) - Clare BoylanClare BoylanClare Boylan was an Irish author, journalist and critic for newspapers, magazines and many international broadcast media....
(1948 - 2006) - Patrick BoylePatrick Boyle (writer)Patrick Boyle was an Irish novelist.Boyle was born in 1905 in Ballymoney, Co. Antrim. He worked for the Ulster Bank in Donegal and Wexford. He began writing when he was in his forties. His first collection of short stories, At Night All Cats are Grey, was published in 1966. He also wrote a novel,...
(1905 - 1982) - Maeve BrennanMaeve BrennanMaeve Brennan , was an Irish short story writer and journalist. She moved to the United States in 1934 when her father was appointed to the Irish Legation in Washington. She was an important figure in both Irish diaspora writing and in Irish writing itself...
(1917-1993) - Joyce CaryJoyce CaryJoyce Cary was an Anglo-Irish novelist and artist.-Youth and education:...
(1888 - 1957) - William CarletonWilliam CarletonWilliam Carleton was an Irish novelist.Carleton's father was a Roman Catholic tenant farmer, who supported fourteen children on as many acres, and young Carleton passed his early life among scenes similar to those he later described in his books...
(1794 - 1849) - Patrick ChapmanPatrick ChapmanPatrick Chapman is an Irish poet, writer and screenwriter, born in 1968. His poetry collections include:* Jazztown, * The New Pornography Patrick Chapman is an Irish poet, writer and screenwriter, born in 1968. His poetry collections include:* Jazztown, (Raven Arts Press, 1991)* The New Pornography...
(born 1968) - Padraic ColumPadraic ColumPadraic Colum was an Irish poet, novelist, dramatist, biographer, playwright, children's author and collector of folklore. He was one of the leading figures of the Celtic Revival.-Early life:...
(1881 - 1972) - Daniel Corkery (1878 - 1964)
- Ita Daly (born 1944)
- Lord Dunsany (1878 - 1957)
E - L
- Maria EdgeworthMaria EdgeworthMaria Edgeworth was a prolific Anglo-Irish writer of adults' and children's literature. She was one of the first realist writers in children's literature and was a significant figure in the evolution of the novel in Europe...
(1767 - 1849) - Brian FrielBrian FrielBrian Friel is an Irish dramatist, author and director of the Field Day Theatre Company. He is considered to be the greatest living English-language dramatist, hailed by the English-speaking world as an "Irish Chekhov" and "the universally accented voice of Ireland"...
(born 1929) - Gerald GriffinGerald GriffinGerald Griffin was an Irish novelist, poet and playwright.-Biography:He was born in Limerick, Ireland, the son of a brewer. He went to London in 1823 and became a reporter for one of the daily papers, and later turned to writing fiction...
(1803 - 1840) - Jack HarteJack Harte (Irish writer)Jack Harte is an Irish short story writer and novelist. He founded the Irish Writers’ Union and the Irish Writers’ Centre. He is the author of the novel Reflections in a Tar-Barrel.- Background :...
- Aidan HigginsAidan Higgins-Life:His upbringing in a landed Catholic family in Celbridge, County Kildare, Ireland, provided material for his first experimental novel, Langrishe, Go Down...
(born 1927) - Desmond HoganDesmond HoganDesmond Hogan is an Irish writer.Hogan was born in Ballinasloe in east County Galway, Ireland. His father was a draper. Educated locally at St. Grellan’s Boys’ National School and St. Josephs’s College, Garbally Park...
(born 1951) - Neil JordanNeil JordanNeil Patrick Jordan is an Irish filmmaker and novelist. He won an Academy Award for The Crying Game.- Early life :...
(born 1950) - James JoyceJames JoyceJames Augustine Aloysius Joyce was an Irish novelist and poet, considered to be one of the most influential writers in the modernist avant-garde of the early 20th century...
(1882 - 1941) - Claire KeeganClaire KeeganClaire Keegan is an Irish short story writer. She was born in County Wicklow in 1968, the youngest of a large Roman Catholic family. She travelled to New Orleans, Louisiana when she was seventeen and studied English and Political Science at Loyola University...
(born 1969) - Maeve KellyMaeve Kelly-Career:Kelly was born in Ennis, County Clare and raised in Dundalk, County Louth. She settled in Limerick and studied nursing at St. Andrew's Hospital in London. She has written novels, short stories and poems, often dealing with women's struggle for equal rights. She received a Hennessy Lit....
(born 1930) - Benedict KielyBenedict KielyBenedict "Ben" Kiely was an Irish author and broadcaster from Omagh, County Tyrone, Ireland.-Early life:Benedict Kiely was born in Dromore, County Tyrone to Thomas John and Sara Alice Kiely. He was the youngest of six children, the others were Rita, Gerald, Eileen, Kathleen and Macartan; four of...
(born 1919) - Mary LavinMary LavinMary Josephine Lavin was a noted Irish short story writer and novelist. She is regarded as a pioneering female author in the traditionally male-dominated world of Irish letters. Her subject matter often dealt explicitly with feminist issues and concerns at a time when the primacy of the Roman...
(1912 – 1996) - Edmund Leamy (1848-1904)
- Sheridan Le FanuSheridan Le FanuJoseph Thomas Sheridan Le Fanu was an Irish writer of Gothic tales and mystery novels. He was the leading ghost-story writer of the nineteenth century and was central to the development of the genre in the Victorian era....
(1814 - 1873)
M – O
- Walter MackenWalter MackenWalter Macken , was born in Galway, Ireland. He was a writer of short stories, novels and plays. Originally an actor, principally with the Taibhdhearc in Galway, and The Abbey Theatre, he played lead roles on Broadway in M.J. Molloy's The King of Friday's Men and his own play Home Is the Hero...
(1915 - 1967) - John MacKennaJohn MacKennaJohn MacKenna is an Irish playwright and novelist.MacKenna taught for a number of years before working as a producer at RTÉ Radio in 1980...
(born 1952) - Bernard MacLavertyBernard MacLavertyBernard MacLaverty is a writer of fiction. He was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland, on 14 September 1942, and lived there until 1975 when he moved to Scotland with his wife, Madeline, and four children...
(born 1942) - Michael MacLavertyMichael MacLavertyMichael McLaverty was an Irish writer of novels and short stories.-Background:Michael McLaverty was born in County Monaghan and then moved as a child to the Beechmount area of Belfast He attended St Gall's School and then went to College and became a school teacher. Michael McLaverty worked as a...
(1907 - 1992) - Bryan MacMahonBryan MacMahon (writer)Bryan MacMahon was an Irish playwright, novelist and short story writer from Listowel, County Kerry. A schoolteacher by training, his works include The Lion Tamer and The Red Petticoat...
(1909 – 1998) - Aidan Mathews (born 1956)
- Eugene McCabeEugene McCabeEugene McCabe is an Irish novelist, short story writer, playwright and television screenwriter. He was born in Glasgow, Scotland, to Irish emigrants, but moved with his family to Ireland in the early 1940s. He lives on a farm near Clones in County Monaghan near the border between the Republic of...
(born 1930) - John McGahernJohn McGahernJohn McGahern was one of the most important Irish authors of the latter half of the twentieth century. Before his death in 2006 he was hailed as "the greatest living Irish novelist" by The Observer.-Life:...
(1934 - 2006) - John MontagueJohn Montague (poet)John Montague is an Irish poet. He was born in New York and brought up in Tyrone. He has published a number of volumes of poetry, two collections of short stories and two volumes of memoir. He is one of the best known Irish contemporary poets...
(born 1929) - Violet Florence MartinViolet Florence MartinViolet Florence Martin was an Irish author who co-wrote a series of novels with cousin Edith Somerville under the pen name of Martin Ross in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.- Early life :...
(1862-1923) of Somerville and RossSomerville and RossSomerville and Ross were an Anglo-Irish writing team, perhaps most famous for their series of books that were made into the TV series The Irish R.M.....
partnership - George A. Moore (1852 - 1933)
- Val Mulkerns (born 1925)
- Nuala Ní ChonchúirNuala Ní Chonchúir-Biography:Born in Dublin in 1970, Nuala Ní Chonchúir is a full-time fiction writer and poet, living in County Galway. She has published two collections of short fiction and two poetry collections - one in an anthology. Nuala holds a BA in Irish from Trinity College Dublin and a Masters in...
(born 1970) - Eilis Ni DhuibhneEilis Ni DhuibhneÉilís Ní Dhuibhne is an Irish novelist and short-story writer who writes both in Irish and English. She is also known as Elisabeth O'Hara.-Biography:...
(born 1954) - Edna O'BrienEdna O'BrienEdna O'Brien is an Irish novelist and short story writer whose works often revolve around the inner feelings of women, and their problems in relating to men and to society as a whole.-Life and career:...
(born 1932) - Kate Cruise O'BrienKate Cruise O'BrienKate Cruise O'Brien was an Irish writer.The third and youngest child of the politician and diplomat Conor Cruise O'Brien, she was born in Dublin, and grew up in Howth. She went to school in Dublin and studied English in Trinity College Dublin...
(born 1948) - Máirtín Ó CadhainMáirtín Ó CadhainMáirtín Ó Cadhain was one of the most prominent Irish language writers of the twentieth century.-Career:Born in Connemara, he became a schoolteacher but was dismissed due to his IRA membership. In the 1930s he served as an IRA recruiting officer, enlisting fellow writer Brendan Behan...
(1906 - 1970) - Pádraic Ó ConairePádraic Ó ConairePádraic Ó Conaire was an Irish writer and journalist whose production was primarily in the Irish language.-Life:Ó Conaire was born in Galway in 1882. His father was a publican, who owned two premises in the town...
(1882 - 1928) - Frank O'ConnorFrank O'ConnorFrank O’Connor was an Irish author of over 150 works, best known for his short stories and memoirs.-Early life:...
(1903 - 1966) - Julia O'FaolainJulia O'FaolainJulia O'Faolain is an Irish novelist and short story writer. Her parents were Irish writers Seán Ó Faoláin and Eileen Gould....
(1933) - Sean O'Faolain (1900 - 1990)
- Liam O'FlahertyLiam O'FlahertyLiam O'Flaherty was a significant Irish novelist and short story writer and a major figure in the Irish literary renaissance, born August 28, 1896, died September 7, 1984.-Biography:...
(1896 - 1984) - Seamus O'Kelly (1881 - 1918)
P –Z
- James PlunkettJames PlunkettJames Plunkett Kelly, or James Plunkett , was an Irish writer. He was educated at Synge Street CBS.Plunkett grew up among the Dublin working class and they, along with the petty bourgeoisie and lower intelligentsia, make up the bulk of the dramatis personae of his oeuvre...
(1920 - 2003) - Lennox RobinsonLennox RobinsonEsmé Stuart Lennox Robinson was an Irish dramatist, poet and theatre producer and director who was involved with the Abbey Theatre....
- Somerville and RossSomerville and RossSomerville and Ross were an Anglo-Irish writing team, perhaps most famous for their series of books that were made into the TV series The Irish R.M.....
(1858 - 1949) and (1862 - 1915) - James StephensJames StephensJames Stephens may refer to:*James Stephens , 17th century MP for Gloucester*James Stephen , English lawyer associated with the abolition of slavery* James B...
(1882 - 1950) - William TrevorWilliam TrevorWilliam Trevor, KBE is an Irish author and playwright. He is considered one of the elder statesman of the Irish literary world and widely regarded as the greatest contemporary writer of short stories in the English language....
(born 1928) - Colm TóibínColm TóibínColm Tóibín is a multi-award-winning Irish novelist, short story writer, essayist, playwright, journalist, critic, and, most recently, poet.Tóibín is Leonard Milberg Lecturer in Irish Letters at Princeton University in New Jersey and succeeded Martin Amis as professor of creative writing at the...
1955 - - William WallWilliam WallWilliam "Bill" Wall is an Irish novelist, poet and short story writer. He was born in Cork City in 1955, but grew up in the coastal village of Whitegate. He received his secondary education at the Christian Brothers School in Midleton. He progressed to University College Cork where he graduated in...
1955- - Oscar WildeOscar WildeOscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde was an Irish writer and poet. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of London's most popular playwrights in the early 1890s...
(1854 -1900)
See also
- Irish literatureIrish literatureFor a comparatively small island, Ireland has made a disproportionately large contribution to world literature. Irish literature encompasses the Irish and English languages.-The beginning of writing in Irish:...
- Irish short storyIrish short storyThe Irish Short Story has a distinctive place in the modern Irish literary tradition, many of Ireland’s best writers, both in English and Irish, having been practitioners of the genre...
- List of Irish poets
- List of Irish novelists
- List of Irish dramatists